# Arete-27B vs Inkling 2 Small (slim)

> Inkling 2 Small scores 58.8 (C) to Arete-27B's 55.1 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Inkling 2 Small scores 58.8 (C) on agent readiness against Arete-27B's 55.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Arete-27B leads on reach. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Arete-27B: C 55.1, rank #124 of 161 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arete-27b.min.md
- Inkling 2 Small: C 58.8, rank #102 of 161 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.min.md
- Arete-27B, good for Agents that want Qwen3.8-27B's coding and tool use without its handling of politically sensitive topics, on a 24 GB card or a 128 GB machine Ahead on Reach, 50 against 40.
- Inkling 2 Small, good for Teams with 512 GB or more of datacentre GPU memory who want Thinking Machines' newest open multimodal agent model and can run a runtime's pre-release image. Ahead on Risk, 65 against 55; Agent interface, 85 against 60.

| Category | Arete-27B | Inkling 2 Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 50 | 40 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 65 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 60 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 63 | 67 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Arete-27B | Inkling 2 Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Nous Research | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-12 |

Why the edge:
- Agent interface, Inkling 2 Small +25: Arete-27B 60 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.); Inkling 2 Small 85 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)
- Reach, Arete-27B +10: Arete-27B 50 (Memory 10, the only build from Nous Research is the 54.7 GB BF16 release, which needs about 66 GB and fits the reference machine.); Inkling 2 Small 40 (Memory 0 of 30, the smallest build is Thinking Machines' NVFP4 checkpoint at 393.5 GB, about 472 GB with a fifth added, above the 256 GB line.)
- Risk, Inkling 2 Small +10: Arete-27B 55 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no remote code.); Inkling 2 Small 65 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no repository code to run.)